National Economy

The key to fruitful trade along the southern tier of the Eurasian Land-Bridge, lies
in strengthening the existing railroads that run through the Indian subcontinent from
east to west. Susan B. Maitra and Ramtanu Maitra give a strategic overview of the
status of Indian railways, and where improvements must be made.

Feature

The “shrieking monkeys” of the world (most of them swinging around London) were not
able to deter the government of China from recovering Hongkong from the current-day
British Empire—financially and politically, still the most powerful single entity
on Earth. Emerging from the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution, the Sino-Soviet
split, decades of tensions with the United States, and many regional wars, the leaders
of China realized that their nation could not develop, without stability and peace.
To achieve this, it was essential, as the late Deng Xiaoping repeatedly stated, to
find new, peaceful solutions for the “problems left over from the past,” such as Hongkong.

International

Despite commendable initiatives from some official quarters in Australia, the London
Privy Council’s line is that expressed by U.K. Labour Party Prime Minister Tony Blair:
that all Commonwealth institutions, including Australia’s military, shall perceive
tiny North Korea as the chief strategic “enemy image” of the moment.

The late June rebellion of military police in the state of Minas Gerais is being described
as “one of the most serious military police rebellions since the 1964 coup d’état,”
while President Cardoso spends his time studying up on etiquette for his knighthood
from the Queen.